Shortly after 5 a.m. on Wednesday, June 12, three people were injured when a Metro bus and a tow truck collided in downtown Los Angeles. While traveling southbound on Broadway at about 60 mph in the 30 mph zone, the 30-year-old male driver of the truck ran a red light at 5th Street and struck the bus before crashing through the entrance of a 7-Eleven. The 35-year-old female driver of the bus may have been ejected from the vehicle because witnesses found her facedown on the sidewalk in the water from a sheared off fire hydrant that was flooding the intersection. She suffered major trauma and was transported to an area hospital. The tow truck driver sustained serious head injuries, and the owner of the 7-Elevan suffered minor injuries. Authorities are investigating the bus accident.

“California law ensures recourse for the victims of traffic accidents through the civil justice system,” explained California bus accident lawyer James Ballidis. “Those who were injured may pursue personal injury claims against the at-fault party in order to obtain compensation for the expenses related to their recoveries.”

Nationwide, 24,000 people were injured in bus accidents in 2008, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The FMCSA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated 40 buses that were involved in 39 fatal and injury crashes in New Jersey in 2005 and 2006 for a Bus Crash Causation Study and found that human errors by bus drivers, other vehicle drivers, and pedestrians or bicyclists were assigned as critical reasons for bus crashes in 90 percent of the cases.

All of us at Allen, Flatt, Ballidis, and Leslie would like to wish a full recovery to the three people who were injured when the metro bus and the tow truck collided in downtown Los Angeles.